The whole world is watching...

Donald Trump sounded almost philosophical about cancelling a rally in Chicago after fights broke out inside and outside the venue between supporters and protesters. He personally did not sound angry; rather, he seemed more cognizant than ever of the anger breaking out on all sides during this presidential campaign season. He seemed unwilling to acknowledge that the protesters were angry at him, but he seemed to concede that they had reason to be angry at the general state of things in the country. Presuming the protesters to be mostly black, he mentioned the high unemployment rate among black men and blamed it on incompetent government. He obviously meant the Obama administration but, this being Trump and no respecter of the Bushes, he may have been thinking further back in time as well. I think he sincerely believes he can offer blacks a solution as part of his effort to make American great again, but he seems at a loss to comprehend why they and other minorities seem so hostile to him, why they seem to assume that he and his simply want to kick them to the curb or beat them away from the lifeboat. For all we know, any of Trump's remaining Republican rivals, and even his new friend Dr. Carson is more likely to want to throw masses of Americans to the wolves in the name of ideology or "morality." But Trump is trapped, by his fault or not, in a perception that his is the angry white movement, that all his appeals to national pride are coded appeals to whites only, and he may not know how to reach out, especially at a time when some minority spokesmen seem determined to make it more difficult for others to reach out to them. Democracy, as I keep on saying, means mutual accountability. On the most primitive level, you saw that if you saw Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters fighting tonight. If Trump wants to convince the enduring majority of skeptics that he's the sort of uniter he claims to be, let him figure out a way to move the debate to a higher plane.